How to change text case in Word, Google Docs and Excel
Typed a paragraph with caps lock on? Received a spreadsheet where every name is in capitals? You don’t have to retype anything. Every major office program can change case, though each hides the feature in a different place.
Microsoft Word
Shortcut: select the text and press Shift+F3 (on a Mac, Fn+Shift+F3 on keyboards where the function keys control brightness and volume). Each press cycles through:
- lowercase
- UPPERCASE
- Capitalize Each Word
Menu: on the Home tab, click the Change Case button (the “Aa” icon in the Font group). It offers Sentence case, lowercase, UPPERCASE, Capitalize Each Word and tOGGLE cASE.
Word’s “Capitalize Each Word” capitalizes every word, including of, and and the, so it isn’t true title case. For headlines, fix the small words by hand or use a title case converter.
Tip: Word also has an All caps font effect (Ctrl+Shift+A). It only changes how text looks; the underlying letters keep their original case, which matters if you copy the text elsewhere.
Google Docs
Select the text, then open Format › Text › Capitalization and choose lowercase, UPPERCASE or Title Case. There is no built-in keyboard shortcut and no sentence case option.
Like Word, Google Docs’ “Title Case” capitalizes every word. To get sentence case, convert to lowercase first and then re-capitalize the first letter of each sentence, or paste the text into a sentence case converter.
Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets
Spreadsheets change case with formulas rather than a menu. If the original text is in cell A2, type one of these into another cell:
=UPPER(A2)converts to UPPERCASE.=LOWER(A2)converts to lowercase.=PROPER(A2)capitalizes the first letter of every word.
Fill the formula down the column, then replace the originals: copy the new column, right-click the original column and choose Paste special › Values only. You can then delete the helper column.
PROPER has a few quirks. It capitalizes the letter after an apostrophe, so o’brien becomes O’Brien (helpful) but don’t becomes Don’T (not). It also turns McDonald into Mcdonald. Always check names after converting.
In Excel you can also try Flash Fill: type the first value the way you want it in the next column, then press Ctrl+E, and Excel follows the pattern for the rest.
Other places
- PowerPoint has the same Change Case button as Word and supports Shift+F3.
- Pages and TextEdit on a Mac: select text, then choose Format › Font › Capitalization, or right-click and choose Transformations.
- Email, chat and forms usually have no case tools at all.
The universal option
When a program doesn’t have the option you need, or you want real title case or sentence case, paste the text into Wordformat’s case converter, click the style you want and copy the result back. Conversion happens in your browser, so the text isn’t uploaded anywhere. For caps-lock accidents, Sentence case is usually the quickest fix: it lowercases everything and restores capitals at the start of each sentence.